After the Golden Jubilee, the future of the Charismatic Renewal (Part II)
The Charismatic Renewal had gone beyond geographical and ecclesial boundaries, towards a basic ecumenism. The Lebanon War, 9/11, and regional conflicts were in the prophecies of darkness. The Christian exodus and the mission in the Middle East remain important issues. The Renewal’s future is interwoven with the future of the Church and the world. An open spirit and fidelity to the calling are needed.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Here is the second part of the report by the correspondent of AsiaNews from the meeting of the Charismatic Renewal in Rome with Pope Francis. The first part is available here.
The future of Charismatic Renewal, a prophetic breath
What is the future of the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church? Speaking on 1st June in St John Lateran Basilica on behalf of Christian Renewal communities, Bruce Yocum, who was there in the first hour of the Renewal among the thousands of students at the University of Michigan, began by telling the crowded basilica that the Psalms are entrusted with "the task of sacred memory", that of remembrance and the "repetition of all the wonders of God" from "generation to generation". Afterwards, he thanked Patti Mansfield Gallagher for the fervor and fidelity with which she described in her book "As by a new Pentecost" the famous "weekend in Duquesne" in 1967, when the Charismatic Renewal in the Church Catholic was born.
Witness to the sudden process with which charismatic renewal went beyond the geographical and ecclesial (denominational) boundaries towards a basic ecumenism, Bruce Yocum also gave thanks for "the hundreds of currents" (neocatechumenals, focolarini, Sant'Egidio, Communion and Liberation, Cursill, etc.] that the Holy Spirit brought forth within the Catholic Church in the 20th century, along with the charismatic renewal. Looking into the future, he suggested that this renewal resembles the early stages of an unprecedented evangelisation, but with deep spiritual darkness.
Ralph Martin and then Bruce Yocum had announced this ambiguous "time" on Pentecost Monday in 1975 at the height of the pontificate of the ruling pope. That year, Paul VI welcomed the "expanding" charismatic renewal at the Vatican and about 10,000 members of a multiform, yet united, current of grace that had come to Rome. On that Pentecost Monday, Paul VI celebrated a special Mass for the "Renewal". When he left the altar, the microphones had a problem and only one was working, the one used by the pontiff.
Moved by a sense of prophetic urgency, first Ralph Martin and then Bruce Yocum took to the microphone to echo the “prophetic” words in St Peter. “Because I love you,” said Ralph Martin’s prophecy, “I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation . . . Buildings that are now standing will not be standing. [. . .] A time of darkness is coming on the world, but a time of glory is coming for my church [. . .] I will prepare you for a time of evangelism that the world has never seen…. And when you have nothing but me, you will have everything [. . .]. Be ready”.
The year 1975 was already at some distance from the prayer with which John XXIII opened the Council (1962), the first gust of wind into the sails of Peter's boat moving it away from the rocks of Tiberias and make it regain the deep waters where a new miraculous catch was awaiting. Renew your wonders, like with a new Pentecost, had prayed the man who had summoned the Council, not knowing what the future of the Catholic Church was, which we know better today: The oil stain of renewal that is conquering the Catholic world, in parallel with the devastation of secularism that is gradually emptying the Churches of Europe and a new massive exodus of Christians from an East that was Christ’s birthplace.
An Orient emptied of its Christians
The echo of the prophecies had not yet stopped resonating between the marble and colonnades of St Peter that some buildings began to crumble in Lebanon. Without going too far into the analysis of the pros and cons of what happened, it is clear that the war that broke out in Lebanon on 13 April 1975 was the first turning point or pattern of a spiral of violence that, in 40 years on, would empty the Middle East of much of its Christian population, something that is still ongoing.
Along with other religious minorities, Christians were among the first victims of the mortal rivalry that broke out in the 1970s and 1980s between two Islams: the militant Islam of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and a Salafist revival that aimed at conquering the world, from mosques in Europe to the Nineveh plain in Iraq.
Speaking privately about the "darkness" announced in 1975, Bruce Yocum answered with surprising depth. For him, the word darkness is to be understood above all in a spiritual sense, and the darkness that has appeared is not comparable with the one that has yet to come. Author of a reference work on the conditions and the exercise of the charism of prophecy in charismatic renewal, Bruce Yocum said in essence: "Listening to Ralph Martin, the faithful were astonished. We looked at each other, and then looked around us, thinking first of all about Saint Peter. The war in Lebanon broke out soon after. The twin towers came later (2001).”
“In my view, the prophecy of 1975 has not yet been fully realised. I think the difficult times we talk about are more of a spiritual nature. In fact, in a draft book, I make a clear distinction between prophecy and prediction. This is a general principle. Prophecy does not tell you what's going to happen. It points to it, it indicates a direction. Only when it is fulfilled can we say: Ah, that’s what it was all about! The best example are the Old Testament prophecies. The most important prophecies of the time pointed to Christ and the new covenant. But no one could have predicted the Incarnation."
What matters in these prophecies, said Bruce Yocum, is that the foretold "darkness" is also associated with a time of "unprecedented evangelisation". Lebanon’s experience is prophetic in this sense, because the charismatic renewal and its various missions in Lebanon and the Arab world have flourished even in times of war. "Of course, those were dark times, everything was hard, but at the bottom of all this," he added, "something very positive happened at the spiritual level."
An appeal to the faithful
In conclusion, what can we say? The future of the Charismatic Renewal is the same as that of the Church and the world. For a believer, the celebrations in the Circus Maximus could simply be a "Christian Woodstock". But the future of humanity is at stake in the Holy Spirit as well, namely the "final battle" of the Lord against "the spirit of darkness in action in the world." To win this battle, unity is indispensable, as the network of communities that have come to Rome seem to have understood.
Bruce Yocum's final advice is simple: keep an open mind and stay true to your calling. Do not be surprised at the abundance of movements and say that we are only part of a larger whole. Finally, be open to charisms and live your life in the Holy Spirit, always remembering that the Lord's fidelity is "forever and forever" and that "it is renewed every morning".
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